Massage Parlors

By James M. Coram and James M. Coram,Sun Staff Writer | February 8, 1994

The Howard County Council last night unanimously approved a massage parlor licensing bill aimed at stopping the "prostitution, lewd displays and indecent behavior" police say is occurring in many of the county's nine massage parlors.The bill requires massage parlor owners and employees to be fingerprinted and undergo state and Federal Bureau of Investigation background checks as part of a biennial licensing procedure.The bill applies only to massage parlors and their employees. It does not apply to health professionals, athletic trainers, therapists certified by the National Certification Board for Bodywork and Massage Therapies or the American Massage Therapy Association, therapists who have completed advanced training in approved schools, Shiatsu practitioners, and cosmetologists and barbers licensed to massage hands, feet, faces, scalps, necks and shoulders.

A Towson woman will forfeit a building on Joppa Road where police say she ran a house of prostitution, but a deal struck with federal prosecutors allows her to keep five other properties in Baltimore. Di Zhang, 43, will also pay $325,000 as part of a settlement of a federal civil forfeiture case over property connected to her alleged prostitution and human-trafficking activities, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Zhang still faces criminal charges in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

County Executive Charles I. Ecker sent the County Council TC tough massage parlor bill last week aimed at preventing employees from participating in prostitution, lewd displays and indecent behavior.The bill would not apply to health professionals, athletic trainers, therapists certified by the National Certification Board for Bodywork and Massage Therapies, therapists who have completed advanced training in approved schools, or cosmetologists and barbers licensed to massage hands, feet, faces, scalps, necks and shoulders.

Anne Arundel County police busted up a Glen Burnie massage parlor they said was a front for prostitution activity. After receiving complaints about possible prostitution at a home business publicly advertised as a massage parlor in the 500 block of Glenbrook Road, Anne Arundel County police vice detectives investigated. Using a search warrant, they entered the home on Thursday and found two women inside. Detectives searched the building and discovered "evidence indicating prostitution activity," police said in a statement.

There is no coincidence that just as Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties cracked down on questionable massage parlors, several of them sprouted up in neighboring Howard. Fleeing tough restrictions, these parlors, some allegedly trafficking in prostitution, found a haven in the county.Now the massage outlets face similar restrictions in Howard, although the scope of proposed regulation may not be enough to send these businesses packing again.At issue is just how tough Howard County wants to get. Absent regulations, policing illegal operations involves clever sleuthing that does not always yield results, police contend.

After approving several amendments, the Baltimore County Council last night approved a bill regulating massage parlors.The vote on the administration bill was 5-1.The dissenting vote was cast by Towson Republican Douglas B. Riley, who raised concerns about the constitutionality of allowing police to enter massage parlors without warrants and invading the privacy of customers."

A bill to license Howard County's nine massage parlors would unfairly discriminate against the Korean women who own them, the County Council was told last night.Four attorneys representing some of the owners of massage parlors said their clients run legitimate businesses and may be forced to close if the legislation passes unchanged."My clients welcome a licensing law, but this one's unfair," said Vince Guida, who represents a union of massage parlors. "Massage is part of their culture, part of their health for thousands of years.

By James M. Coram and James M. Coram,Sun Staff Writer | February 7, 1994

The County Council is expected to pass a massage parlor licensing bill tonight, after a few changes to County Executive Charles I. Ecker's proposal.The bill, which would require massage parlor owners and their employees to be licensed, is needed, Mr. Ecker says, to eliminate the prostitution, lewd displays and indecent behavior alleged to have taken place at some of the county's nine massage parlors."

Owners of massage parlors in Laurel and Jessup each have agreed to pay about $3,000 to the county in fines and to cover the costs of fees that police officers paid for massages during a controversial sex investigation.Sam Sun Shin, owner of Rainbow Spa in the 8600 block of Washington Blvd. in Jessup, agreed to repay $960 that the Police Department spent on massages for undercover officers in the seven-month investigation.Mary Ann Platt, owner of Lily Spa in the 10100 block of Washington Blvd.

Two Howard County massage parlors have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a county law designed to crack down on massage parlors is unconstitutional and will drive them out of business.The suit is the first legal challenge to the law enacted in 1997 to halt illegal sex activity in the 13 parlors in the county. The outcome of the case could affect a similar law in Anne Arundel.If the law is declared unconstitutional, then "the statute is unenforceable," said F. Todd Taylor, a senior assistant Howard County solicitor.

The ad that led to the arrest of a Towson massage parlor owner this month was typical for such businesses, boasting as it did of the availability of "new young girls. " "You have to ask: If they constantly have new girls, where are the other girls going?" Melissa Snow asked. It was a rhetorical question, because as someone who works to stop sex trafficking, Snow has a pretty good idea where they go — to yet another massage parlor that similarly is offering more than rub-downs.

Howard County lawmakers are looking to adopt more stringent requirements that would make applicants for massage establishments and taxicab driver's licenses undergo nationwide criminal background checks. The bill being considered by the county delegation, at the request of County Executive Ken Ulman, would require going beyond the current standard of statewide background checks to increase safety for cab riders. Advocates say the requirements would also provide a check against brothels disguising themselves as massage parlors.

From the street the faded, yellow house on Belair Road looks unassuming. Three large picture windows overlook a community recreation center and an elementary school. It's around the corner from a community baseball diamond. On one recent visit, a small American flag lay discarded on the front lawn, along with a few scattered cigarette butts. A metal pipe protrudes above a side door. Before the police raided this house, prosecutors said the pipe held a surveillance camera placed there by the operators that recorded the number of men who passed through the entrance, and helped monitor the women working inside.

A former state investigator of the massage parlor industry has been charged with extortion, according to a two-count federal indictment unsealed yesterday. Paul E. Murphy, 55, of Bel Air was arrested by the FBI on Friday. Later that day, Murphy made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. No date for his arraignment has been set, said his attorney, Gerald C. Ruter. The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office declined to provide details about the extortion allegations lodged against Murphy.

Call girls on cul-de-sacs? Experts say the arrest of a former college professor this week in an upscale Ellicott City neighborhood should come as no surprise. "Most prostitution does not occur on the street," says Barbara Brents, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, whose research has focused on the legal brothels in that state. Brandy M. Britton, 41, who taught women's studies from 1994 to 1999 as an assistant professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was charged Wednesday with four counts of prostitution by Howard County police after a nine-month investigation.

Howard County police have charged three women and one man with prostitution-related crimes in the Wednesday evening raid of an illegal Ellicott City massage parlor. Police said that they had received numerous complaints about prostitution taking place at Presence of Mind, in the 9000 block of Chevrolet Drive, which advertises itself as a massage parlor, but is not licensed as one. Police allege that the employees provided sexual acts to customers in exchange for money and that the owner, Dana R. Zimmerman, 38, received a portion of those payments.

Residents will have the opportunity Saturday morning to tell county commissioners how they feel about massage parlors, traveling furniture salesmen, the school board's spending habits and a county police force.The commissioners have scheduled a meeting from 10 a.m. to noon in Room 07 of the County Office Building to hear public comment on 11 pieces of legislation that they may ask the county delegation to introduce in the next General Assembly session.After hearing comments, the commissioners may revise the legislation before meeting Dec. 1 with the delegation.

Howard County police and the FBI have raided three Howard massage parlors, arresting five women after an eight-month investigation of interstate prostitution.Thirty-five police officers and more than a dozen federal agents served search warrants around 7:15 p.m. Thursday at the Osaka Express, in the 8900 block of Route 108 in Columbia; the Sun Spa, in the 3200 block of Corporate Court in Ellicott City; and the Lotus Shiatsu Spa, in the 7800 block of Washington Blvd. in Jessup."We're looking at the big picture and deciding what the scope of the problem is," said Lt. Jeffrey Spaulding, who heads the Howard County Police Department's vice and narcotics division.

The owner of an Elkridge massage parlor pleaded guilty yesterday to offering bribes to a state inspector and two Howard County police officers in hopes of getting them to provide false licenses and harass other massage parlors in the county. Sung Yul Kim, 66, of Fort Lee, N.J., was sentenced to three years in prison, one for each count of bribery. The sentence was suspended, except for six months to be spent in a work-release program. Howard Circuit Judge James B. Dudley also ordered Kim to pay a $5,000 fine and forfeit more than $10,000 worth of money and items he gave to officials while they were investigating him. "He clearly violated the law and ... he has accepted responsibility today," said David Schertler, Kim's attorney, during the proceedings.